Keresan languages

Keresan /kəˈriːsən/, also Keres /ˈkɛərɨs/, is a group of seven related languages spoken by Keres Pueblo peoples in New Mexico, U.S.A.. Each is mutually intelligible with its closest neighbors. There is significant diversity between the Western and Eastern groups.

Family division

• Eastern varieties: total of 4,580 speakers (1990 census)
  • Cochiti Pueblo: 384 speakers (1990 census)
  • San Felipe – Santo Domingo: San Felipe Pueblo: 1,560 speakers (1990 census), Santo Domingo Pueblo: 1,880 speakers (1990 census)
  • Zia–Santa Ana: Zia Pueblo: 463 speakers (1990 census), Santa Ana Pueblo: 229 speakers (1990 census)
• Western varieties: total of 3,391 speakers (1990 census)
  • Acoma Pueblo: 1,696 speakers (1980 census)
  • Laguna Pueblo: 1,695 speakers (1990 census)

Genetic relationships

Keres is a language isolate spoken by several Pueblo peoples in the American Southwest. Edward Sapir grouped it together with a Hokan-Siouan stock. Morris Swadesh suggested a connection with Wichita. Joseph Greenberg grouped Keres with Siouan, Yuchi, Caddoan, and Iroquoian families into a super-stock called Keresiouan. None of these proposals has gained the consensus of mainstream linguists.

Historical phonology

The chart below contains the reconstructed consonants of the proto-Keresan (or pre-Keresan) as reconstructed by Miller & Davis (1963) based on a comparison of Acoma, Santa Ana, and Santo Domingo.^[1]

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Retroflex	Dental/Palatal	Velar
Plosive	unaspirated	b	d	dʸ	ẓ	z	g
	aspirated	p	t	č	c̣	c	k
	glottalized	p’	t’	č’	(c̣’)	c’	k’
Fricative	plain		s	š	ṣ
	glottalized		(s’)	š’	ṣ’
Sonorant	plain	w	r	y
	glottalized	w’	r’	y’
	plain, nasal	m	n
	glottalized, nasal	m’	n’

The consonant *c̣’ only surfaces as an alternate form of underlying *ẓ or *c̣.

Morphophonemic alternations:

Basic form	Aspirated	Glottalized	Fronted
d	t	t’	dʸ
t			č
t’			č’
g	k	k’	z
k			c
k’			c’
ẓ	–	c̣’	d
c̣	c̣	c̣’	č

Syllable:

C(C)V

Notes

External links

• Nathan Romero, "Chochiti Keres: About Me and My Language: The politics of saving a vanishing language: The politics of writing", Language Documentation Training Center, University of Hawaii, Manoa (UHM)

• Eastern Keres at Ethnologue
• Western Keres at Ethnologue

Bibliography

• Boas, Franz. (1923). "A Keresan text", International Journal of American Linguistics, 2 (3/4), 171-180.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Davis, Irvine. (1963). "Bibliography of Keresan linguistic sources", International Journal of American Linguistics, 29 (3), 289-293.
• Davis, Irvine. (1964). The Language of Santa Ana Pueblo. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 191); Anthropological papers (No. 69). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
• Davis, Irvine. (1966). ["Review of Acoma grammar and texts by W. R. Miller"], American Anthropologist, 68 (3), 810-811.
• Davis, Irvine. (1968). ["Review of Acoma grammar and texts by W. R. Miller"], Language, 44 (1), 185-189.
• Davis, Irvine. (1974). "Keresan-Caddoan comparisons", International Journal of American Linguistics, 40 (3), 265-267.
• Hawley, Florence. (1950). "Keresan patterns of kinship and social organization", American Anthropologist, 52 (4), 499-512.
• Kroskrity, Paul V. (1983). "On male and female speech in the Pueblo Southwest", International Journal of American Linguistics, 49, 88-91.
• Maring, Joel. (1975). "Speech variation in Acoma Keresan", In D. Kinkade, K. L. Hale, & O. Werner (Eds.), Linguistics and anthropology in honor of C. F. Voegelin (pp. 473–485). Lisse: Peter de Ridder.
• Mickey, Barbara H. (1947). "Acoma kinship terms", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 12 (2), 249-256.
• Miller, Wick R. (1959). "Spanish loanwords in Acoma: I", International Journal of American Linguistics, 25 (3), 147-153.
• Miller, Wick R. (1959). "Some notes on Acoma kinship terminology", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 15 (2), 179-184.
• Miller, Wick R. (1960). "Spanish loanwords in Acoma: II", International Journal of American Linguistics, 26 (1), 41-49.
• Miller, Wick R. (1965). Acoma Grammar and Texts, University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 40). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Miller, Wick R.; & Davis, Irvine. (1963). "Proto-Keresan phonology", International Journal of American Linguistics, 29 (4), 310-330.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Sims, Christine P.; & Valiquette, Hilaire. (1990). "More on male and female speech in (Acoma and Laguna) Keresan", International Journal of American Linguistics, 56 (1), 162-166.
• Spencer, Robert F. (1946). "The phonemes of Keresan", International Journal of American Linguistics, 12 (4), 229-236.
• Spencer, Robert F. (1947). "Spanish loanwords in Keresan", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 3 (2), 130-146.
• Walker, Willard. (1967). ["Review of Acoma grammar and texts by W. R. Miller"], International Journal of American Linguistics, 33 (3), 254-257.
• White, Leslie A. (1928). "Summary report of field work at Acoma", American Anthropologist, 30 (4), 559-568.